Forever Richard causes violent reactions from readers.

Forever Richard causes violent reactions from readers. LOL How's that for a headline? First case in point. One of my fans took Forever Richard on a family trip and read it aloud to the family (also fans.) It just so happens this family and I were traveling in separate vehicles to the same location (Pensacola Beach.) At some point during the trip, (just past Lucedale, Mississippi,) the driver of the family van, tried to RUN ME OFF THE ROAD! (All in good fun of course.) A cell phone call from the wife (I knew you'd like being called that Susan) explained that she'd just finished reading the book. "Oh yeah," says I. "I get that reaction a lot." LOL

On to my second example. Another friend and co-owner of Shoutlife.com the official book launch site for Forever Richard and home to Richard himself (aka Stevie Mac aka Steve McClelan aka the macster) sent me this shoutmail to explain some comments she'd made to me. This is her reply:

*Again this does contain violent content*


I loved Josh! (she said this because I asked) Loved the part when he was teasing Rodney, lol. When I finished the book on girls weekend, Adrienne was sitting by me and I threw it at her. She laughed and said "that good?" She is excited to read it too. CANT WAIT!! And cant wait to meet Cyn!

Sorry Adrienne. At least it's a paperback book. So yeah, the ending will get you if you're not careful . . . even if you're not reading the book. ;)

A master in his own right. IMO

There were so many fine authors at the 2007 World Horror Convention held in Toronto Canada, that I hardly felt worthy. Nicholas Grawbowsky was there of course (I was one of four of his honored guest,) Brian Keene, Kelly Armstrong and the like. And so many came by the table to chat. I must say the highlight of my weekend came when a particularly sophisticated sort of chap kept coming back to talk to me. Well, being on my own, so to speak, in another country (though we do share borders) had me asking others if I should be worried. My anxiety grew when no one could tell me exactly who this individual was. Clearly, I'd asked the wrong people. LOL

Don Tumasonis of Norway was in fact an invited guest and on several panels. He's been likened to a British spy by the very way he carries himself, and of course the accent which gave me fits trying to place just exactly where he was from only added to his mystique. Mr. Tumasonis, as I learned from googling him while we chatted, is an extraordinary award-winning speculative fiction writing. Do go look him up when you get the chance. You won't be disappointed. You can go here to read a sample of some of his unbelievable story weaving.

Don and I spent a lot of time site-seeing and I feel extremely honored that he felt inclined to spend time with me. :)

P&E says Journey Stone not recommended!

P&E now has Journey Stone Creations listed as not recommended. Below is the exact verbage from their site. DUH! They're shuffling MS's to Publish America without telling authors. Gorsh! The only thing worse than that is well--in the literary world there really is nothing worse than that or more illegal. BTW, if anyone reading this blog has submitted an MS to Journey Stone, rest assured, your precious work has been shuffled on to a back-end vanity press without your consent. Actually, from what I understand there is no real label that anyone can attach to PA.

Good grief!

And for the record, I'll have to get a lawyer to retrieve over nearly 200 stolen books from JSC as they kept that many books to try and sell despite ditching over 4000 of Never Ceese the hardback to a liquidator. Everyone of those books are mine for website work I did for them. I've asked for them to tell me where they are and to give me a date when I can come get them (not that I want them since they have pages missing and are pretty much falling apart) but I certainly don't want JSC selling them to the public for RETAIL!

DON'T BUY THE HARDBACK -- at least not through Amazon or a legitimate bookstore. Those are the ones JSC gets money for. I'm hoping to resolve this soon. Do feel free to buy the hardback from anyone offering at a very low price. Those are the books dumped. JSC makes no money of off these. Actually why would anyone pay retail when you can get one for $2.00.

20 May 09 - Journey Stone Creations, LLC: Not recommended. A publisher specializing in children's books.

Sue Dent made a movie!

Hope you like it. :)

*viewer discretion advised*

(There. That ought to make you curious. LOL)

Publish America is a sister company of Journey Stone Creations?

Publish America is a sister company of Journey Stone Creations? When I heard someone was told this in a letter from my old publisher, I had to see it. And now I'll show it to you.



Wow! Just wow!

All I can say is that when I signed on with Journey Stone they were a traditional press. I was paid an advance and they had distribution through STL/Faithworks. While I was with them they did end that relationship to try and secure distribution through Ingram but didn't qualify. For the duration of my time spent with them, they only had a wholesale relationship with Baker & Taylor (or some kind of relationship.) Of course, then without warning, they sold a ton of books, including all of Never Ceese to a liquidator. Tax documents they're required to send authors have yet to be sent to me and so I had to extend filing taxes.

And now they claim Publish America is a sister company and they're forwarding MS's to them for authors who think their submitting to a traditional publishing house.

Again, WoW!

YIKES and oh my!

From a poster on another entry here on my blog. I'm concerned enough to respond here.

Hi Sue,

I recently sent out a children's book manuscript to 35 different publishers, one of them being Journey Stone Creations. They sent a letter stating that they are no longer accepting, but that they sent my mani to their sister company, Publish America. Since I have heard about Publish America being a 'not so great' company I was pretty upset about it. FYI: Publish America is a POD! In my search for more information concerning Journey Stone, I have come across about 100 listings about you and your books.

I just wanted to say that I am really glad that you were able to come out of this with grace!

I wish you all the best!!!

I've come out unscathed by the grace of God. Did I read correctly? Did you say Journey Stone implied Publish America was their sister company? Somebody please report that. And Publish America is far from a POD. From what I've read and understand they're a very, very, very nasty vanity press operating on their own and of their own accord.

Journey Stone was a traditional press at one time with legitimate distribution. I'm not sure what they are now.But if they're claiming some association with Publish America I'd have to say they are very confused and desperate.

Other than that, they sold all copies of Never Ceese to a liquidator without telling me so I make absolutely nothing off sales from the hardback. I re-published my paperback myself to remedy this. I've posted blogs about the situation so hopefully my wonderful book won't be associated with that particular company much longer.

You can report Journey Stone to WritersMarket.com if they still have them listed as a traditional press. That will help other authors not get burned. WritersMarket will take them off the list. ;)

Once again, I'd appreciate if no one bought the hardback. I don't make any money and I understand that pages are missing and books are falling apart. The paperback is being distributed through Ingram and Spring Arbor.

The ISBN is 9780976994701

Caution: advert!

Shameless self-promotion seems to be an avenue that works well for many authors. I can't say that I'd never do this as I'm quite good at it. To be fair however, my shameless self-promotion didn't get my debut novel Never Ceese short-listed for a Bram Stoker award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel nor did it get me voted book club choice for the month of April 2007 at the American Christian Fiction Writers association. Thanks to all who loved my story and made this possible. ((hugs))

Honestly, in retrospect, I can't even say that shameless self-promotion was actually necessary. Better safe than sorry though. ;)

So onto the sequel, Forever Richard. With such a grand start with my first novel (okay it took me a little over a year and a half to get where it is now,) I decided to forgo a little of the shameless self-promotion on my second book. Surely those readers who were so taken, according to reviews, would read Forever Richard and report with equal zeal. Perhaps the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance** would allow me to tour again since my first novel hit number one on Tecnorati the first time they allowed me in.

While reviews are coming in, and thank-you very much for those who've left one, I'm hard pressed to say shameless self-promotion isn't necessary. However, despite what one thinks, shameless self-promotion takes time and I'm a bit busy writing my third installment in my Thirsting for Blood Series, Cyn No More.

Do remember that even though many of my readers are from the niche market CBA and ECPA publishers serve and is oftentimes called Christian Fiction, a term used to define work put out by affiliated publishers, my work is not targeted fiction. There's your incentive to run out in buy it.

It's written to appeal to everyone. Granted it probably won't but I try. :)

I do apologize once again to my CBA and ECPA readers but until the bigger Christian Booksellers (affiliated stores) open their doors to anything other than targeted fiction, you won't find me in those outlets, on-line or otherwise. Smaller Christian bookstores seem to be fine with placing my books but they certainly won't unless people are asking.

Funny how that works.

So say it once, say it twice, say it three times but more that that, buy my books.

Forever Richard and Never Ceese and soon to be released Cyn No More. You won't regret it, I promise. :)

   

**Anyone can tour CFBA but now it costs $500 and you have to provide books to what could end up being close to 50 bloggers. When I toured I simply had to provide the books. The other stipulation is that if an author isn't affiliated (ahem, that would be me) the book will be evaluated for "appropriateness" according to CBA and ECPA standards or in my case re-evaluated as Spring Arbor has already deemed both of my books "appropriate" for the Christian market. So even if the money wasn't an issue (of course the money is an issue,) having my work re-evaluated when it's already been deemed "appropriate" is.

Best Seller's List - What do you know about them?

I'll admit I don't know exactly the way these lists are compiled and most of the more popular "best-selling lists" claim to have their own secret way of doing things, but I did stumble across this:

". . . Most(best-selling lists) don’t even rely on actual sales, but on supplier’s orders: If a bookstore orders hundreds of copies of a particular book, that number is counted before the store itself reports a single sale. That’s how Harry Potter books showed up on best-seller lists weeks early, if anyone was wondering . . ."

To be honest, I've heard this before and it makes perfect sense. You can't realistically keep tabs on what bookstores are selling so you keep up with what they're ordering under the assumption that they're only ordering what they think will sell.

This was an eye-opening revelation for me though because as an author and now a publisher. I completely look at the list differently. A bookstore can order books in bulk on the hype some larger publisher has put out and then return 95% of those books because they didn't sell. Nevertheless, the book is on the top best sellers lists because the book store ordered.

Take this a step further, into the Christian Publishing Industry, and things become really frustrating. Many CBA and ECPA affiliated titles (targeted fiction written for a specific audience of Christians, with a specific purpose) make their way to the top of best seller's list every day yet these same authors often bemoan the fact that their work just isn't selling.

Does that make sense?

It does if you consider that the larger Christian Book stores only shelve CBA and ECPA affiliated books and usually in bulk as CBA and ECPA were both formed by a group of Christian Book sellers in 1950 and 1974 respectively to provide appropriate fiction for those who frequented these stores.

Is this a problem?

It is if you don't know this about the larger Christian Book Sellers. I honestly didn't. I just assumed all Christian Book Stores would carry any book deemed appropriate by Spring Arbor, their official distributor. But now I learn that most are irritated that Spring Arbor is approving non-affiliated Christian titles and all of the larger Christian Book Sellers use their own system of approval. Ironically, they even turn down some CBA and ECPA affiliated work. I suppose the child is out-growing the parent.

I was excited, and still am, that readers from this market enjoy my work but a little discouraged and disappointed that I won't be able to take advantage of the way they operate, typically ordering large number of books to increase the chances of making a best-sellers list and hopfully increasing dwindling sales. Keep in mind though, they only do this for CBA and ECPA affiliated titles.

Do know that should my work ever take off to the point that sales to bookstores ever place it on a lists with other best-sellers, it won't be because larger Christian Book Sellers had anything to do with it, even though I have many of their readers excited about what they're reading. And for the record, larger Christian Book Sellers had nothing to do with The Shack being the phenomena it is. That was all Mr. Young and lots of general market readers hungry for fiction they could enjoy. Christian Book Sellers only approved it after they couldn't ignore the attention/money it was getting.

If you ever do see my titles on a larger Christian Book Sellers shelf, please let me know. I'd prefer not to have it there based on my current knowledge of the way they currently operate.

Smaller Christian and some Independent Christian Book Stores simply carry what the official distributor of Christian product, Spring Arbor, approves and provides, meaning they'll actually put it on their shelf without question if you ask. Lifeway and all the other larger Christian Book Sellers will only order it it's avaialbe through Spring Arbor and not affiliated.

Christianbook.com Still giving run-around.

Yes. Once I realized readers who favored CBA and ECPA fiction liked my books as well I went about finding ways to make it easy for them to find my work. Christianbook.com seemed to be the webiste to be on but sadly they seem to have their own agenda or at least from what I can tell.

Doesn't seem to matter if your publisher claims to be a Christian publisher, it doesn't even seem to matter if your work has been approved for distribution through Spring Arbor. Apparently you have to either be published by a CBA or ECPA affiliated publisher (targeted Christian material) and/or be selling enough books already for them to see money in carrying your non-affiliated Christian work such as The Shack.

I was told one time all I had to do was have the publisher contact "them."

A. They never tell you who "them" is.

B. And that's even if you're a publisher. (non-affiliated of course. :))

Anyone know how to get around the Christianbook.com run around?

Cyn No More

So Cyn No More looks to be the official title for the third installment of my Thirsting For Blood series. Any comments *be nice* on how that sounds? Of course, you have to be nice or else I'll lovingly delete your comment. Oh the power of being in charge of ones own blog. :)

Officially In Stock at Ingram and Spring Arbor

Never Ceese the paperback, ISBN: 9780976994701, with it's fantabulous updated cover, is officially "In Stock" at Ingram and Ingram/Spring Arbor and is showing up as such. So order away. Oh and if anyone would like to help out with distribution feel free to contact me as I am S D Enterprises. :)

A vampire . . . a werewolf . . . Can two who were wronged make it right?
Never Ceese
www.neverceese.com

A vampire . . . a werewolf . . . again!
Forever Richard
www.foreverrichard.com

Why there are markets.

Wouldn't it be easier for the reader if books targeted for a specific market
were marked in some way for that audience? It might cut down on reviews like this.

I was very disappointed in this book . . .there is a heavy religioius slant to the whole thing. The problem for me was it was getting in the way of the story line. Would not recommend this book.

The series was called "faith-based" but that could mean anything. With targeted fiction leaving Christian bookstore shelves and flooding general market bookstores, it seems we're back to square one.